Stitching Time; The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project

Around 2012, Maureen Kelleher, a private investigator in New Jersey, and her pen pal Kenya, an inmate at Louisiana State Penitentiary, were chatting when they realized they shared quilting as a hobby. "We decided we'd try to create a project that brought our quilt ideas to the public," Kelleher recalls. They had three goals: show the "inside quilters" talent, raise awareness of a hospice program Kenya and other inmates had formed and participated in as volunteers and create a bridge of communication between incarcerated and free persons. The result of that conversation is The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project (SJCQP), which currently has a collection of 50 quilts designed by inmates at Angola Prison (the nickname for Louisiana State Penitentiary) that are displayed in venues around the country. The first exhibit was in Newark, NJ in 2019 at Gallery Afro; this month, you can see 20 of those quilts at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough in an exhibit called "Stitching Time." "The exhibit is really about the art and the men as artists," says Karla Hostetler, executive director at the Mariposa Museum. "It's a reminder that, no matter what the things are that separate us, even things that would seem to be as divisive as you could get – the things that land someone in prison, or the systems that create reasons for people to be in prison – we're still all human beings." Each quilt is completely unique, though many touch on themes of racial equality or depict the artist's heroes, like James Baldwin, John Lewis, Barack Obama and Harriet Tubman. An enormous quilt by Kenya called "Juneteenth" opens the exhibit at the Mariposa. "The idea of slavery and confinement and what that must mean to a person who is confined behind bars really resonates with me," Hostetler says. Many of the quilts are paired with a QR code, which visitors can scan to hear audio recordings of the artists talking about the meaning behind their work. "[Quilts are] such a big, important part of African-American heritage," says Hostetler, noting that quilting was an art form accessible to people who were enslaved in America who had to make bed covers and clothes using what was accessible to them, including fragments of materials. "That turned into an amazing art form that told stories that preserved history. Over time, so many quilts have been lost, but this tradition has evolved." The SJCQP continues the tradition by connecting incarcerated quilters with free quilters. Kelleher says this varies from piece to piece. Sometimes the quilt starts inside the prison, then she'll add a finishing border on the outside. "Sometimes we have a 'theme' for a quilt, and everybody can contribute via sewing part of a quilt or writing on fabric," Kelleher explains. "Then I gather all the contributions, put all the pieces together, and make it one quilt." The inside quilters don't always have access to all the materials and tools they need, especially if they move locations. "We roll with it," Kelleher says. "Whatever the inside quilters can't do, we can pull up the slack out here to make sure the quilts get finished and are ready for display." Kelleher says she's always happy when the quilts inspire someone outside the prison to form a connection with an inmate, perhaps by joining the SJCQP or starting a pen pal relationship like the one she has with Kenya. "I just see people standing for a long time in front of a quilt," Hostetler says of museum visitors' reactions. "That speaks both to the complexity that's in the quilt and that these quilts are really, really beautiful." She sees the quilts as an opportunity for reflection. "We share a planet, we are still all humans, and the problems that divide us, however serious they are, are everybody's problem." The Mariposa Museum is family-friendly, and Hostetler says that many parents have taken the opportunity to have first "difficult" conversations with a child about topics like civil rights history and immigration "in a space that encourages compassion and the importance of every being." As for Stitching Time, "there's nothing in there that would be worrisome to a parent [in the quilts or the interviews]," she says. "And one quilt celebrates the poem by Amanda Gorman, a youth poet. It may simply be an acknowledgement that yes, there are people in our society who are in prison. [The quilts are] not only a beautiful thing, but they connect you to a person you would not ordinarily have met or an idea you might not have thought about." While Kelleher is grateful for any type of support – even just spreading awareness about the program – she's currently seeking an angel investor to provide ongoing financial support for the project, which is a 501(c)(3) charity. The perfect partner would be "any person or group with social justice on their mind, who would like to support prisoners, who feels we need to rethink our mass incarceration knee jerk reaction to those who get caught up in the criminal justice system," she says. "A person or group with a keen heartfelt connection to creativity, who believes creativity is for everyone, no matter if they're free or incarcerated, would be a welcome new addition to the project." You can see the exhibit on display until December 29 at the Mariposa Museum at 26 Main St. in Peterborough. For more information about the project, visit The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project's Facebook page or contact Maureen Kelleher directly at thxkatrina@gmail.com.